Update on Being Loud

So I started the loud discussion (see prior entry "Why do I always feel so Crappy") with some family members. Very interesting discussion.

For those who don't want to bother reading the entire prior post, the basic question is - When engaging in converstation/discussion/argument, why is it right to be calm and wrong to be loud and overly passionate?

Interesting results. Especially since my sister (loud) and her husband (calm) were centerpoints in the discussion. My brother-in-law's main points were these: 1) calm people won't listen to loud people so loud converstations are inefectual in these circumstances and 2) loud people are irrational and get nothing accomplished.

I argue that neither are good enough reasons for the calm people to be right and the loud people to be wrong, and so does my sister (who incidentally, isn't really all that loud - most probably wouldn't even consider her to be loud). Here's my counter argument:

1) While I agree that conversation is inefectual if someone isn't listening, that doesn't necessarilly lay blame on the talker. I think calm people have just as much responsibility to learn to listen to loud people as loud people have to talk calmly to calm people. Intriegingly, when having a nice calm discussion about it, most people agree, yet put in the opportunity - it all falls to pieces.

2) Loudness is not necessarily a sign of irrationality. In fact, I would argue it is more often a sign of passion. And passion isn't always irrational. My sister and I could site many examples where we got louder and louder as we progressed through an argument and eventually ended up at a "Yes Yes, now I see" moment. That's not to say loudness is never irrational because for certain it is. But, let me tell you, a lot of crap can be spewed very calmly.

There it is. I will leave you with this profound statement made by a renegade Monkey from New York, "If you have any poo, fling it now"...